spray paint – Watch This Space

Open For Business – Rinley’s Writer Supplies

As the city’s newest spot to stock up on paint, Rinley’s Writer Supplies has quickly been established as the go-to for the local graffiti community. That comes as no surprise when it is the brainchild of a veteran painter who knows the local scene and what people want, ensuring Rinley’s is truly a store for writers. We visited Rinley’s small-but-well-stocked Sydenham location and caught up with owner Noose to chat about his graffiti experiences, how Rinley’s came into existence and the realities of selling (and stocking) spray paint…

One thing I’ve learned from meeting a lot of graffiti writers is to never to expect what someone is going to be like…

Hard out! I’ve had that here. I don’t know if you know the dude who paints mushrooms, but I met him recently and he was like, I don’t associate with anyone who paints, don’t say who I am or what I look like or whatever! I was so surprised. I was asking him about whether he paints the mushrooms where you would actually find them, and he was like, yeah, kind of, it was a little bit of a road map, which I thought was quite cool. He was a really interesting dude.

There are painters who have been deep in the culture for years and then there’s those who get into it almost independently, who subvert the traditions a little…

I think the scene has changed dramatically as well. I was definitely an asshole, but that doesn’t get you anywhere, it just stagnates your actual growth as an artist when you’re like, that guy went over me, I’m just going to go hard out and make sure I go over them. It means you don’t paint anything good, you’re like, what’s the point, you’re going to get gone over anyway…

Was your introduction to graffiti through hip-hop culture or through another influence?

Skateboarding bro, just being down at the skate park. That was when the older generation were painting walls down there all the time. I was down there every day bunking school and I’d see them painting all the time and I’d try and talk to them. The reception was very gangster and like, what do you write, Toy? It was quite aggressive. So, I was like, OK, that’s how you have to be, you have to have beef to be someone. There was also the whole YouTube explosion around the same time. I started in 2007 and that was when movies like State Your Name and a bunch of big New York graf videos had just came out and had the attitude of, if you buy your paint you’re a toy, and graffiti is a full contact sport. So, I was like, you have to be able to fight and do all these other stupid little things, which is so dumb looking back on it now.

Various artists, 2021

I don’t know if you’d agree, but my feeling is that there are definitely benefits to a less rigid view, a willingness to change and go with the changes…

People like that get better so much quicker because they’re nice people to paint with, because they have opportunities to paint with people who are better than them and they want to paint with them. But if you’re an asshole, everyone will be like, I don’t really want to paint with that guy, he’s going to cause drama, and it’s going to affect the thing that I’ve got going on…

Starting in 2007, you have obviously had experience from both the pre-quake and the post-quake scenes, how do you see the difference?

Pre-quake, if you didn’t have a good tag and you didn’t have a good throw-up, you weren’t allowed to piece. It wasn’t going to happen. Your stuff wouldn’t last, you had to build your name to that point. You also couldn’t paint freights at the time, because of the fear of FILTH and other crews like FAT, they very much held down that scene. There were real repercussions for messing with the thing that they had going on. But post-quake a lot of those dudes left, so this younger generation had a bit of a free for all, there weren’t these scary dudes holding a tight grip on the scene. Obviously, the amount of abandons (empty buildings) as well meant it was just a free for all, it was crazy.

The city was fucked, so people were happy that there was something going on. For years there were three pubs in the city you could go to late at night, there was the Town Ball, that tent one, maybe Dux Live in Addington, so it was pretty grim… Any kind of colour that you added to that was seen as good, you could just paint like there were no laws.

Do you think that environment led to an ongoing change in terms of the perception of graffiti or do you think that bias is still there? Ōtautahi has this reputation for our murals – graffiti has fed into that so much and yet it doesn’t necessarily get the same shine, do you think that’s improved from what it was?

I feel like the level of graffiti that was painted pre-quake went down post-quake. Pre-quake you had the likes of Dcypher, Lurq, USK, Sender, the Wall of Fame by the Colombo Street over-bridge. Then there was the big buff that happened with the train tracks and a lot of that was lost, so it just turned into a tagging and throw-up spot and people stopped piecing and doing productions for quite some time. It wasn’t really until some of those festivals happened post-quake that it was, like, oh shit, we’re getting good recognition for the bombing that everyone’s doing, but we can’t compete at all with the piecing…

That echoes what happened in Auckland with the Rugby World Cup buff in 2011 and years of history were wiped away and that vacuum was filled with a focus on bombing and tagging rather than piecing…

It opened up a spot. It was like alright, those sick pieces and burners and stuff are all gone, now it’s our time to take that spot, let’s just do something quick and fast, like a big stomper or something to claim that spot to use it later to do something. As opposed to being like, shit, let’s do something as good as that or attempt something as good as that…

What names stand out for you in that post-quake era?

Definitely BC crew, JFK crew, Ikarus obviously, Yikes. I feel like When Dcypher came back it was on for DTR. Freak and all those guys were still doing amazing stuff, but you know, its Dcypher, he gets things going…

You talk about JFK, who were super active post-quake – you are a member of that crew, right?

Yep, I am. When JFK was formed, you had to be painting quite heavily to be in it, but there was also a lot of thought about where you were situated in the city; I got put in because I was in Addington, Deok was put in because he was in Hornby… It just made going all city very easy, so that’s why it covered the city quite quickly, there was a bunch of dudes in New Brighton, a bunch of dudes in the east, there was a bunch of dudes out west…

Who else stands out?

Post-quake, 100% Skum from JFK, he was just insane. He was the PK before PK. I remember Skum, Germ, Jot, all those dudes, were going hardcore. Slepa, I think he was kind of going hard pre-quake and kind of died off just after the quake, but yeah, all those dudes were going crazy…

Fast forward a decade or so and we are here today sitting inside your store Rinley’s Writing Supplies, how did Rinley’s come about?

I got caught two years ago and basically, I couldn’t paint Noose anymore, they knew who I was. I had just had a kid. I was going through the whole court thing, where I was put on a year’s good behaviour. At the same time, I was also getting some legal work, and I was saving all the money from that because I wanted to try to do a project, like try to get legal walls for people and to find people new places to paint, do that whole thing. I was getting more jobs doing Chorus cabinets and saving all that money. So, I had bunch of money sitting there and I was like, I can probably open a shop with what I’ve got. I had already thought of the name Rinley’s, I was going to make markers and paint. The name at first was Rinley’s Black and Chrome, it was just going to be black mops, chrome mops. But that sort of changed over time. I messaged a bunch of paint suppliers, shopped around and was in chats with Montana and they were just so on the ball with replying to emails. They were so good to deal with, I was like, this is like a no-brainer, I’ll just take the risk and do it. I sent them a whole bunch of money and three months later all this paint showed up…

Going back to that idea of racking paint to be a real writer, how have your personal experiences shaped Rinley’s and how you have gone about setting the store up?

I wasn’t a racker. When I started the cages came about that made it harder. I was just on the cusp where you could rack from The Warehouse when I was starting. I was just buying paint, and I was buying shit loads of it. I was spending basically my whole wage on paint at one point…

Where were you buying paint?

I was using Embassy hard out, but when Ironlak went, it was a matter of necessity to shop around, so I ended up using Gordon Harris for years. Before I started Rinley’s, I was using Tom’s Emporium.

Tom’s has stocked Montana, you talked about how Montana as a company were really good to deal with, but it also has a strong reputation for quality…

Yeah, Embassy had Montana years and years ago, when I first started, and I loved it. The smell is nostalgic, and its good paint. But honestly, the main reason I chose Montana is how good they are to deal with. Their paint is as good as any other paint you can get, but the level of service and communication when you’re sending large amounts of money overseas is second to none compared to some of the other places. They see a small place like this, and they see the potential. They don’t see it like just some small fry who only want a small amount of paint compared to someone else.

You’ve started Rinley’s at a manageable scale in terms of the shop itself, but you’ve got a big range of cans in a small space!

I think what was happening with a lot of the paint shops was that they were looking at four different, say, burgundies, and they looked at the middle tone and they go fuck, it is close enough to the other ones, let’s just get that and we will step down to the next shade, whereas artists still want those off shades. For someone like Yikes or Dcypher, who do crazy technical pieces, those slight changes in shade mean a lot. For me just painting pieces and stuff, it doesn’t mean as much to me, I can go from a burgundy to a bright red pretty easily, but it’s just like a necessity really, like there’s just nothing better than having a full range that you can just look at. The other thing was when you go into a lot of paint shops or even skate shops to buy paint, they’re all behind a cage. It’s almost like you’re burdening the staff to get the cage open, you feel like you are being watched and you can’t be trusted. That’s why I’ve got this set up, where the door is shut at all times, but I’ll let you in, you pick your own shit, you can compare colours, you don’t have any other awkward encounters. I just make this shopping experience better, because painters aren’t all deviants, a lot are quite successful in their jobs, they don’t deserve to be watched like a hawk to buy paint…

Rinley’s Writer Supplies

Which is all an off shoot of essentially criminalising spray paint…

Which was the stupidest law anyway! People can buy all these pens, there’s no law on the pens. You can go fill up a weed sprayer full of paint, you could go get a fire extinguisher right now from Bunnings, fill it with paint and have the most destructive tool you could possibly have, but for some reason spray paint was targeted. I’ve read the legislation around the time that it was written (early 2000s), I think the perception was that graffiti writers are all lower-class kids, so let’s make it hard for like 15/16-year-olds, not actually knowing that many of them were fully grown men. Which is stupid because they would have seen that in the court papers…

With the rise of urban contemporary art, people are using spray paint as a part of a much broader creative practice as well, but the product is stigmatised by putting it behind cages and making it an awkward experience for people to have to go and get something unlocked and then be watched…

Well, the other crazy thing with the law was that if you are walking around the street at 12 o’clock in the daytime with a bag full of spray paint and you got pulled up by the cops, you’ve got a legitimate alibi as to why you have that spray paint, you do that at 12 o’clock at night and you’re a tagger. Who is to say that you’re not a night worker? I’ll open late for people, like if you want to buy paint late at night, holla out, we’ll sort a time out and you can come and grab it. A lot of the dudes that do come in, they work late, they don’t get the chance to come into paint shops during the week. Not all of them are out painting graf, some are just using it for canvases or whatever they want to use it for…

It’s interesting, I know of a few people who have gone into studying criminal law or things like that, because of experiences associated with painting graffiti. Were you already aware of some of those things from being a writer, or is that stuff that you kind of dived into because you knew that opening the store would potentially bring up some of those issues?

I kind of knew a bunch about the laws just from being caught before, but then I obviously had to look into it from a business point of view; am I liable for selling someone spray paint and then they go out and do a throw up and chuck a Rinley’s tag alongside it? Am I going to get in the shit for that? Which is why you need things like public liability insurance and stuff like that. I mean, if that was to happen, they could take you to court and it could get thrown out, but you’ve just wasted thousands of dollars on lawyer’s fees just to try and argue point which should be pretty straight forward…

Do you have excess stock in storage?

Everything is out at the moment. We will have stuff in storage from this next order, especially in the Montana Gold range, because this (the current stock) is only half the Gold range. We’re doubling the next order in the Gold range. It was just a wee bit of a concern because Gold hadn’t been here for so long, I was worried that people would be like, it’s a dollar fifty more than Montana Black cans, The people that have used it have all said the same thing: the cans go longer, the coverage is better, they’re easier to use because they are low pressure… Even Dcypher said all the stuff he did for Project Legit using Gold has held up insanely well, and that’s like 15 years ago now. So, for people that are wanting to use aerosol for large-scale murals, that’s the shit to use.

Rinley’s Writer Supplies

What’s your time frame for re-stocking? Have you figured out the best way to keep well stocked?

Because it’s coming from overseas, it’s like three and a half months. I am lucky, my partner is a fucking genius when it comes to running a business how its supposed to be run, she’s a superstar at that kind of thing, so yeah, she’s got that side covered. We’ve just placed another order, a massive order as well, to try and time with summer.

You ultimately have a very specific audience, so I assume it’s less about growth as it is about building customer loyalty and a solid reputation…

I’ve had probably a message every other day asking do you ship? do you ship? But at the moment, I’m not interested in shipping because I’m concerned that if I do start shipping, locals come in and they are like, oh shit, man you’ve sold out really quick and it’s like, yeah, I’ve sent a 500 can order to Nelson or whatever. I want to cover local first… and put Christchurch on the map internationally as best as I can…

You’ve got more than just paint as well – tell me about some of the other products you stock…

I pretty much only import stuff that I like! We’ve got a range of markers. The reason I got the silver Uni Paint PX-30s is just because they are the best silver marker you can get. The Sakura Magic’s are just a good black marker and then the Sakura Solid Paint Sticks are cool because they are a little bit different. We have various mops from Krink to Fadebomb and eggshell stickers too.

I see you also have some books, some collectibles and some art for sale as well…

When I had opened, I didn’t have a lot of things up other than the spray paint, the caps and the markers, so a few friends were like, I’ve got some shit that I want to sell, can I put it in your shop? And I was like yeah definitely! It was pretty empty up there, so a mate’s put up his Transformers VHS tapes he wants to sell, he had a custom shoe he wanted to sell, Skum from JFK has like a whole bunch of random buses and canvases that were done in like 2015 or 2016, so we’re selling those, and then the books. I got Fresh Press from the guys up north, and then just like a few other books that I had collected over the years that I’ve read probably 10 times and won’t read again…

You’ve got Flip the Script by Christian P. Acker, I love that book…

Yeah, it’s a bloody good book. The Mike Giant book is really interesting as well. I look at that quite a lot now, just because it reminds me a lot of old Christchurch graffiti. I’m not sure whether or not it was the Art Crimes page from years ago that he was uploading to, and people were taking influence from, but it’s kind of crazy how similar his style and even some of the colour combos and walls that he did remind me of old Christchurch pieces, like how the letters hit the ground… I also listen to his podcasts and stuff and from the sounds of it, he was sharing photo stacks around the world with people quite regularly, so whether or not those stacks ended up here, it was an interesting time back then, the internet was around but it wasn’t used the way it is now…

Having been part of the graffiti scene for so long, does opening Rinley’s feel like a new phase in your graffiti story?

I started in 2007 and I really didn’t want to be coming into my 20th year painting not having done anything, so I wanted to do something at least. I fucked myself getting caught, so I couldn’t do anything impressive graf wise, I wasn’t going to risk getting caught again, having young kids and a missus that was fucking stressing out, so Rinley’s was the answer…

Having been caught, what are your thoughts on how the city approaches graffiti?

Every time they like have some new programme that will stop tagging, they never work! The only thing that does work is giving people space to paint legally. I think the Council now, especially with people like Mel Hillier at the Graffiti Projects team, she understands that, and she can see now that there is a group of people that do just want to paint good shit. They might not necessarily want to go onto painting three-storey high buildings with crazy murals, but they just want to paint nice pieces, they want to chill, to be able to have beers or whatever just down at the wall and just make a day of it…

You know, the city has all these places where people can be physically active. There’s never a problem about basketball courts or pump tracks or skate parks, why is it such a big leap to have a place where someone can paint a wall?

As someone who’s fucking shit at sport, shit at skateboarding, I did it for years and got nowhere with it, the one thing that you are kind of alright at, painting pieces, you’re shunned for!

When you frame it as a chill thing, where you can spend a day with a group of mates painting, having some beers, having a good time, where’s the threat in that?

Everyone that comes past and sees you painting, I’ve never had a bad interaction when we’ve been painting pieces. As soon as the sun goes down though, that’s where the perception changes, even if you are doing the exact same thing after dark, people go, tagger! Which is crazy, just paint in the day and you’re right!

Problem solved! Thanks man – lastly, when can people shop at Rinley’s?

Nine to five, Monday to Thursday, nine to six, Friday, and then nine until twelve, Saturday and Sunday. But from October I’m probably going to be doing appointment only across the board as we are having a baby. But I’ll be low on paint by that time anyway, so I don’t think it will be a massive problem…

And people can find out more on the socials?

Yep! Follow us on @rinleys on Instagram and Threads!

Exploring Aerosol: A Masterclass Workshop with Wongi ‘Freak’ Wilson

Watch This Space, in partnership with Toi Ōtautahi and with support from Te Manatū Taonga – The Ministry for Culture and Heritage, are excited to present Exploring Aerosol, a masterclass workshop hosted by renowned artist Wongi ‘Freak’ Wilson!

Part of a larger series of workshops aimed at artistic up-skilling and targeting both practicing and emerging creatives, Exploring Aerosol will present the potentials of spray paint as a medium for the streets and the studio. Aerosol has long been established as the iconic tool of graffiti and urban art, allowing a practicality and a particular aesthetic that means, despite growing environmental concerns and increasingly diverse and multi-faceted approaches, this status endures within the culture and public perceptions. Importantly, aerosol has been harnessed by artists as both for painting walls as well as a studio tool.

Exploring Aerosol will be held at the beautiful Woolshed at Te Ana Marina in Lyttelton and will be hosted by one of Ōtautahi and Aotearoa’s most celebrated and skilled aerosol artists, Wongi ‘Freak’ Wilson. Wongi, a member of the famed DTR Crew, is highly respected for his ability with a can, from clean, crisp, poppy effects to amazing realism on huge scales. In this workshop, Wongi will delve into the backbone of aerosol as a tool for graffiti and then into a diverse range of techniques.

Exploring Aerosol will offer a hands-on experience led by one of our most experienced urban artists – this is not to be missed!

With limited spaces available, places will be allocated via an application process, with application forms available from [email protected] or via the Toi Ōtautahi website. Applications open Monday, 23rd May, and must be received by Friday, 3rd June. Email [email protected] with any enquiries.

Exploring Aerosol – A Masterclass Workshop, 10:30am – 3:30pm, Saturday, June 18th, 2022 at The Woolshed, Te Ana Marina, Lyttelton.

Bulky Savage – Welcome to Crushington

Earlier this year I received an email connecting me with Bulky Savage, a New Zealand-born artist living in Berlin, who was seeking a wall to paint while home visiting family. We traded some messages and attempted to find some options, but ultimately it appeared that nothing would quite line up. Intrigued by a Kiwi artist now based in an epicentre of urban art, I dived into his Instagram to become familiar with his work. His quirky menagerie of characters, seemingly indebted to the influence of cartoons, were immediately endearing, while literal washes of colour added vibrancy but also a suggestive symbolism. Imbued with a sense of playfulness, they were equally comfortable in the digital illustrative realm as they were on the streets.

Fortunately, B.S. was finally put in touch with the owners of Riverside Market and before returning to Germany, finally got the opportunity to produce a mural to mark his temporary homecoming. The wall painting, featuring one of his recurring hollow-eyed skull characters and a flow of colour echoing sloshing paint, is on a somewhat secluded wall in the laneway beside the bustling market. However, that seclusion doesn’t stop it from being a striking sight once you are introduced, beguiling in its seemingly open narrative, with confectionery-esque colours set to flood the ground.

While we had only exchanged brief pleasantries via email, when we finally chatted face to face (or at least via a Messenger call, as is the way in these pandemic times), it was quickly apparent that B.S. was instantly affable and an hour quickly passed. We discussed Berlin, his entrance into the street art world, his experience here in Christchurch and importantly, the state of the world and the modern economy…

While I’m sitting here in Christchurch, you are in the morning sunshine of Berlin, how did you come to live in Germany?

I grew up in Auckland. my dad is English but has been in New Zealand since the late seventies, and that’s kind of how I managed to be over here, with that [British] passport, but who knows how much that’s worth anymore…

So, at what age did you leave New Zealand, and what drew you to Berlin?

I turned 23 very shortly after I left New Zealand. I just wanted to get out. Our tiny little home in the middle of nowhere is great, but it is very hidden away, so I just wanted to see what was going on in the world. Europe was obvious and I had the passport, so that made things a bit easier. I wanted to learn another language, so I wanted to go somewhere in Continental Europe. I bumped into a bunch of German people as I was leaving New Zealand and again while I was travelling, and Berlin came up. It was always a blip on the radar, but I didn’t know anything about it except that it has always had good music. But by my second day here, I was just like, yeah, this is cool, I could do this for a bit. I did spend two months living in London when I ran out of money. I couldn’t get a job in Germany, so I went to London and worked for two months and squatted and got some cash together before settling here.

My impression of Berlin was that there is a palpable energy to the city. It was busy and there was a grit that wasn’t evident in Munich, for instance.

There is a little bit of everything here in Berlin, something for almost everybody. You either love that chaotic kind of energy like you said, or you don’t, certain people just don’t get on with it, but yeah, it totally grabbed me. I never really had a trajectory until I got to Berlin and saw the street art everywhere, and I was like, this is where I need to be!

So much of Berlin’s history can be seen and felt in the streets. The streets speak in many ways, re-presenting different eras and epochs, and that lineage almost informs the graffiti and street art in Berlin with a potency that some cities lack. While muralism is often charged with complicity in gentrification, in some ways urban art itself has been gentrified, but in Berlin it felt different.

Yeah, I guess that is always one of the conundrums of being part of this kind of art scene. It does kind of run both sides of the gambit. It is part of the problem and the solution! Berlin was definitely a bubble within it all, at least for a while… Gentrification has become more of a problem recently as the city folds a bit to the mighty Euro and murals do get absorbed into that as well. But yeah, muralism is only one layer of the street art and graffiti scene and there will always be people telling stories from the streets here.

A lot of people have said that Berlin’s a place for lost people. You get a lot of people coming here because they don’t really know what they’re doing with themselves. They spend a couple of years here and then figure it out and go and make money somewhere else. I guess I never got out, I became entangled with Berlin. But it’s become part of my art style and my lifestyle. I guess it’s also spoiled me, I’m not really sure that I could go and do what I’m doing somewhere else, in the same way anyway.

You explore a lot of different creative activities, so how would you describe what you do? Do you define yourself by any particular discipline or medium?

I like to say that I’m an artist who does street art sometimes. I bore easily, but if I’ve got different things to play with, I can always move on to something else. I really like photography, but everybody does photography, so it’s a much more difficult market to break into. I do digital stuff, and I’m trying to get back into painting with paint brushes again and things like that. But spray cans particularly are my jam. I’ve gotten good with those and its really nice to feel capable with something like that. That’s the problem with being multidisciplinary, it’s really frustrating working with things where I’m almost there, but I’m not really there. It’s nice to work with something where I can be like, bang, bang, bang, it’s done the way I wanted it. That is very satisfying.

Bulky Savage at work on a collaboration with @abwasserschwimmer for the record store Latitude in Berlin. (Photo supplied by Bulky Savage)

There is something about the material qualities of aerosol that seem a particularly good fit for an urban environment like Berlin. One of my enduring memories in Berlin was stumbling across a Blek Le Rat stencil, it had almost all been painted out apart from the feet of the character and his name, but I always remember being struck by the way that the paint sat on this brittle concrete surface. But there is a lot of discussion going on now with artists about how to balance environmental concerns with the reality of aerosol, is that something that you think about?

Sometimes. There are always concerns with all sorts of different things for me, not just environmentally, but also keeping myself sane, so I have to balance out the impacts that I have with keeping myself happy. That might seem selfish sometimes, but I live in Germany and Germany’s pretty good at taking care of that stuff. There are proper waste bins for spray cans at a lot of the walls you paint these days, which is good. I hope they get taken care of properly, you don’t really know, there’s only so far that you can go when it comes to things like recycling. I can put all my stuff in all the right boxes, but I don’t know what happens after that. I’ve heard that they don’t even recycle themselves, certain things get sent to China, stuff like that. That is completely out of my control, so I try to not worry about that as much. Its great now that they don’t have things like CFCs, I’ve had people come up and say what about the ozone layer, and actually, you know, technology, baby!

Aerosol really informs the entire process, the final image, the process of making that image, even the conception of that image, it’s a defining tool for a lot of artists, and one that is so hard to replicate…

You can’t get that effect with anything else; air brush is close, but it’s also not. I have been working on an exhibition; it was planned for the first week of lock down. I wanted to make smaller scale works, so I’m using stencils, but I had to use spray cans because I want that beautiful gradient and that granular effect that you get from aerosol. There was nothing else I could use that would work like that…

It was initially adopted by graffiti writers primarily for mobility and efficiency, but increasingly, it’s actually the aesthetic that has become the attraction. The mastery that has been achieved over generations has become what drives and defines its continued use. When did you start using spray cans?

In New Zealand there were a couple of people on the periphery of my friends that were getting into street art. Cinzah was best mates with a girlfriend of mine at the time, and I went along to a couple of his shows and he was doing some paste ups and things. I was like, this is kind of interesting. I really love his style, it’s fantastic. But I was already on my way overseas, so by the time I got to Europe, that was really my first proper introduction to spray cans. I think it was maybe two or three years after I got to Berlin that I really started playing around with spray cans, so I guess around nine years ago. They are a difficult tool to master…

You mention the influence of street art, were you attracted to the act of painting in the streets? Often that is the biggest leap, because it is a decision imbued with more significance as you get older, when you’re more aware of a lot of the mechanisms in public space…

I hadn’t considered it before, but when I got to Berlin it was so pervasive, I felt comfortable getting out and being part of it. I just went out on my own. I made some paste ups because I couldn’t use spray cans at the time, but I could draw. I was all about drawing to begin with, I still am to some degree. I’d gone into a little gallery which is not really around anymore, it was run by this guy EMESS, a stencil artist, and I talked to him about the kind of stuff I was doing, and after that I went out and made my own paste ups. I went out with a sponge, totally the wrong gear! One of those pieces was still around recently actually, it stayed up for like eight years, which is pretty impressive for a paste up. Then, finally, I started doing street art workshops and teaching people how to do stencils, and that was when I really started playing around with spray cans a lot more, just taking it from there and putting it onto the walls as well. I did the illegal stuff here and there, but I’m not sure that I would have done it anywhere else besides Berlin. It is a lot more relaxed here than it is in most places. But the illegal side of it wasn’t really a draw card for me. A lot of people, particularly in graffiti, love that side of it, going out, getting into spaces that you shouldn’t, running from cops, that kind of thing. I guess my parents raised me to be a ‘good boy’, or at least put the fear in me! I was much more into the actual creation and painting part of it. I’ve got a bunch of friends who paint trains and things, and it’s great, but I just don’t have that in me. I like taking my time. That’s why I’ve gotten into murals, spending a couple of days painting is really rewarding to me.

My Parents are Bread, paste up in Berlin. (Photo supplied by Bulky Savage)

Even if the illegal aspect wasn’t as attractive, were you still interested in how to situate a work in space and the encounter that you can create with an unsuspecting public audience?

When I was still doing paste ups and things, I’d like to have bits on corners of buildings so you could see it on one side and then pop around and there’s another part of it as well, leading people in certain ways. Interacting with outside spaces is a big part of the street art scene, and now, when it comes to murals, I still like that idea. I don’t want to put big messages into my art. I like to just have something that will pop and grab people’s attention, something a bit out of left field that will make them wonder what’s going on there?

Design and illustration are increasingly tied to urban art, as an interconnected pathway and through the iconographic approach of post-graffiti, the creation of an instantly recognizable and relatable icon. Has your design background influenced your work?

I studied design at Massey University in Wellington for a couple of years because I was young and foolish. I basically thought that was how you made money in art. But really, I’m more into the ‘art’ side of things. You can see that my work is very graphic, although I would say maybe more Pop Art these days. But the graphic design thing, I didn’t only do it because of the money side, I love graphic design as well, and it has definitely influenced my style.

There is an unmistakable, recurring quality to your work, notably with the hollow-eyed character, did that develop as an intentionally recurring presence, or was it something that just kind of emerged and endured?

I think I drew the first iteration of that character just before I left New Zealand. I used to work at Cosmic Corner and I did a drawing of that little character one day at work. Characters and cartoons have been a massive influence throughout my life. The Simpsons were my favourite thing growing up, and you can see the shape of Homer’s head in that character. I just kind of absorb things from everywhere. While I was traveling, I started to really develop the characters and then I came to Berlin and that’s when I was like, this is where I can take them. Over the years, I just played around with them and they took on their own personalities. There is the big fat businessman who keeps losing his head, there is the little sad guy, the introspective guy and then the crazy worm guy. They are all sort of similar, and I guess through a slow process I have imbued them with bits of my own personality.

Do they occupy their own universe or are they part of our world? The Simpsons live in Springfield, which is famously never revealed on a map, it is sort of a contained universe, but they are also part of the broader world through storylines and their pop culture status. I guess as soon as your characters are added to public space, they start to occupy our world as well, right?

I have given them this world they inhabit, which is kind of like Springfield, I guess. It’s called Crushington and it is this relatively colourless place. There’s a Crushington in New Zealand as well, which is funny. If you look at some of my line drawings, there’s this kind of desert-like landscape, these big open spaces influenced by New Zealand, where you’ve always got that big horizon line, whether it’s the sea or the mountains. There is also a little bit of Colin McCahon in there. I love Moebius’ style as well, the desert line he uses, I stole that bit. But I like how you were saying The Simpsons are part of our world, but they’re not, because I feel the same with my characters. For the most part they are two-dimensional beings in our world, and I really want to get into sculpture over the next couple of years and bring them into a more three-dimensional form. I want to play with that idea and bring them from their world into ours, because there is this second space they inhabit where they are more like what I know. I haven’t really shared it so much, but I’m going to have an exhibition about Crushington at some point soon…

Bulky Savage, Crushington Characters for the Love of Three, illustration. (Photo supplied by Bulky Savage)

Kaws has shown with his Companions that there is so much potential to explore those three-dimensional incarnations, different materials, various scales, and even playing with the perception of high and low…

That’s one of the things that always drew me to the street art and graffiti world, if you want to do it, you do it. You can take that style, or you can take from there, take from there, take from there, and that’s why I think it’s been such an interesting movement, you have all these people coming from different backgrounds and different influences coming together and making something completely different. It’s exciting…

The waves or oozing colours are another recurring element in your work. Do you want to dive into that imagery a little bit? Metaphorically, of course…

I really started with those in 2017. I did an exhibition called Bit Sick, playing around with the B and the S of my name, and it was about how crappy 2016 was, and how sick I was of everything. I’ve always been someone who just goes with the flow and the waves were an aesthetically pleasing sort of rolling vibe, but also fit with the theme, because in that exhibition I had things about being sick of art, sick of commercialism, sick of America. Of course, 2017 came through and really shat on 2016, and things haven’t really got any better since!

By 2020 you must be more than a bit sick…

Well, you know, it all flows and rolls downhill! The exhibition that I’m working on at the moment, which was going to be out already actually, was very timely as well, it was all about not seeing the bigger picture and being focused on these little pieces, as interesting and attention grabbing as they are. Again, it is making us all feel a bit sick and now quite literally making the world sick. It’s really just about being over things as well; the state of myself, of the world, just expressing my feelings at the time. But there’s not going to be any characters in the exhibition, it’s just going to be the waves. They have become really fun to paint with spray cans as well, the shapes, the really nice blends as well, giving it a sense of solidity, so that’s become more of a focus…

Detail of a Bulky Savage collaboration with @tenhun in Berlin. (Photo supplied by Bulky Savage)

I’m thinking of the idea of a purge, or a cleansing, and once you take away that figure, the idea of size and scale changes. If the wave becomes the sole focus, it becomes something else, right? When you see it come out of a figure, you automatically scale it relative to that figure, when you just see that wave filling an entire frame, that can be either overwhelming or it could just be a close-up of a small trickle. There’s something about that idea of the bigger picture and smaller details, and that social element becomes strangely more pertinent when you take them away from the figure. So, tell me about your experience painting here in Christchurch earlier in the year?

I’d never painted in Christchurch before, but my parents live just outside of Cheviot [a small town north of Christchurch], so when I go back, I fly into Christchurch. I would just get to see little bits of it as we drove through, or if we visited somebody there. I remember going there when the city center was still completely locked down after the earthquakes, but this was the first time I got to spend a little bit of time in Christchurch for some years, and it was cool. I saw a lot of opportunity there, personally, as much as the earthquakes were terrible, I love seeing old destroyed buildings, maybe that’s why I’m in Berlin. It’s not something that you really get to see in New Zealand, so I really liked that. I liked the show of power, but then also how the city has risen up from the ashes of it as well. The city is really interesting at the moment.

I found it incredibly interesting that Christchurch became this microcosm of a big city; you had shiny new buildings, you had broken buildings standing there empty and covered in graffiti, becoming spaces for people to explore. Different people could do different things. If your mindset was to explore those broken spaces, you could do that, if your mindset was to sit in a bar and drink a cocktail, you could do that. There was this interesting juxtaposition of old and new and broken and shiny. One thing that does is reveal a lot of the power structures that go into making a city. Christchurch has become interesting in that regard, and graffiti and street art have a role here as both dissenting voices and part of the rebuild as well. It shows why these forms of art have become such a dominant visual voice the world over, because they can adapt to different environments. How did the mural in Christchurch come about?

In a very winding way. Knowing I was coming back to New Zealand mid-last year, I started reaching out to people in September or October, mostly through Instagram. I got bounced around. I got in touch with Preston [Hegel] down at The Exchange, he was doing some cool stuff and was like, oh maybe you could talk to this person… I got bounced around between a bunch of different people before I got put in touch with the guys from Riverside Market at the last minute. I just said I’m going to be coming down in like two days and they said: Sure, we’ve got a space, you can do what you want. It just fell perfectly into place. I was slightly freaking out that I wasn’t going to be able to get a space to paint, and coming from Berlin, I was just like, what is this?! Where are my walls?! In Berlin, if you want to paint, you just go and find a wall. I have a wall that I can just go and paint anytime I want just down the road. I wasn’t necessarily looking to leave a massive mural, I just wanted to find somewhere to paint, if it could stay that would be a bonus, if not then c’est la vie. It worked out great, those guys were really nice, they were just like: What do you need? Here’s money for the paint. They paid me for it as well, which is fantastic. It was this very last-minute design, because I was like, let’s see what the wall’s going to be like and go from there…

Bulky Savage's mural at Riverside Market, central Christchurch, 2020. (Photo supplied by Bulky Savage) — Bulky Savage’s mural at Riverside Market, central Christchurch, 2020. (Photo supplied by Bulky Savage)

The wall is quite high and relatively narrow so that obviously played into the design and I guess allowed you to use those recurring motifs in what seems like a natural fit…

Well, I had ideas floating around in my head of what I wanted to paint. I’d actually thought of having it the opposite way around, with the character at the bottom and all this stuff coming up out of it. But there was this big generator at the bottom of the wall, so I just flipped it around. Most of the time I tend to let the wall tell me what the piece is going to be, so I guess that’s good practice for when it comes to spaces like this one.

There are little references to food in the tattoos on the character, but there was no input in terms of what you had to include, that was just something that you added in?

Yeah, the guys were just like, do what you want. Which was amazing, because when you’re being paid to do something, a lot of the time they are like, it needs to be like this and fit inside this box. But I was really given freedom with it and I guess maybe that was why I thought if they’re still letting me do this then I’m going to throw in these little references to the space. I always like to let the tattoos kind of tell a story. I love tattoos, and part of the reason people get tattoos is to express little things about themselves or their experiences. I quite like incorporating them into my art in the same way, so if there’s meaning to be read from what I’m doing, which generally I try not to do, then it can be read in the tattoos…

Any artist would love that freedom to create something that is your own, but how do you think your work communicates to the crowds that go past, is there an intentional aspect that they should read, or do you encourage them to come up with their own narrative?

Yeah, story and narrative are really interesting for me. I love cartoons, I love stories. Life is stories. But I don’t want to preach, I like the idea of leaving something really open. We are human beings, we make meaning out of everything that happens, whether that’s actually what it is or not. So, instead of trying to push people towards my view or what I want to say, I prefer to leave that open and more abstract, so that people have something to play with. I often talk about Stik, the London street artist, who got famous for doing stick figures, but because they are so basic you can project your friends or your relationships or anything onto them because it’s such an open canvas. These very hyper-realistic pieces are beautifully done and technically fantastic, but there’s a bit of a distance because it’s just a picture of somebody that you don’t know. So, I like a more open experience…

Did the freedom of the mural energize you to strike out and do anything else while you were here? Is there anything hidden around Christchurch that I might not have stumbled upon yet?

No, to be honest I was a little bit out of shape and the mural was exhausting. I think I did about 19 hours in two days, and on the first night I was just completely burnt out. I was thinking about going and painting on the cans while I was there, but I just burnt myself out, I just went to bed! But I would love to come back and do some pieces in other spots, when and if that ever becomes a possibility…

Are you a Kiwi living in Berlin or a Berliner from New Zealand?

Good question! I’ll always be a Kiwi, but Berlin’s definitely become home for me. I would like to be able to split my year between the two places, because my heart is somewhat split, half of its here, half of its there, particularly with my parents being there. I love New Zealand, it’s refreshing. New Zealand people are almost the opposite of Germans in a lot of ways, very easy going, very open and welcoming, whereas you know, Germans are a lot more strict. That’s harsh, its an over generalization, obviously! But yeah, I love coming back to New Zealand, and just talking to the bus driver. It warms the heart. Christchurch in particular is looking interesting because there’s so much space, so many opportunities there at the moment, which was really good to see.

A small part of the reason for being away for as long as I have was because we had the John Key government which was in no way supportive of arts and artists, and as far as I’m aware, it’s still not super easy to be an artist in New Zealand when it comes to support from the government and things like that, but maybe that will start to change…

With lockdown precautions in so many places, it’s clear that people have been relying on art; on music, on film, on a range of forms of art, to get through isolation. And yet at the same time, no one ever positions the arts as vital, they talk about tourism or other industries, which is infuriating because if anything this situation reinforces how important the arts are to humanity. But we seem to have to go through this every time something significant happens, it was the same after the earthquakes as well. There’s still a real need to acknowledge artists’ ability to make their living doing what they do because what artists do makes life better…

Yeah definitely. I wouldn’t want to claim that my art enriches people’s lives, maybe it does and that’s fantastic. I always tend to feel a little bit selfish about my art, it’s something that I need to do, it’s very much my own expression and when someone can connect with it, that’s fantastic. Knowing that people have bought my stuff and have it hanging on their walls is nice, but again, the money side of it is not why I make art. I’d like to be able to just make art and not have to worry about the commercial aspects of it, you know? Universal Basic Income baby! People always think we need to make money and that becomes a driver and that’s when art loses a little bit of itself. I need to eat, so I have to make art that’s going to sell, but it would be nice if we learn something from this whole thing about what’s important for people, for people’s health and mental health. I run a little gallery and art shop space here as well and it’s interesting and frustrating thinking about what sells and what doesn’t and what you need to do to make money from it. I always feel still slightly grimy making my art into easily package-able things, being channeled into commercialism. Down with capitalism!

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Cover image credit: Antonio Castello